What Kinds of Things Do You Do to Keep Your Little Ones Happy and Occupied?

Have them help with whatever you're doing! My 2 y/o girl loves to help me sweep, dust, wash dishes, and set the table! She also has a really cool easel that she can draw with markers, crayons, or chalk. This gets put in whatever room I'm working in (especially when I'm doing computer work) so she can "work" too. We also do the "toy rotation" routine, so when she's really antsy or bored, I just bring out a "new" toy to keep her amused for a while.

- Give each child a disposable camera and let them take pics of whatever they'd like. My kids loved this

- Make a "tent" (blankets over furniture) in the living room and put a sleeping bag inside....flashlights, tunnel tents, the whole shebang - they will play for hours.

- Have them look through their baby books - my little ones love to do this also.

- Scavenger Hunt! - Hide things around the house and have them find them.

- Puzzles

- Movies

- Craft ideas from Parents or other similar magazine

- Play "I spy" while you cook and clean

- Have them help you cook!

- Start a little garden

- Decorate plant pots and then put plants in there for them when they're done

- Take coloring to the next level - have them make a "greeting - just because" card for a few members of the family and mail them.

- My little ones love activity books (counting, money, math, writing, etc)

We made forts out of couch cushions or draping a sheet over the dining room table.

Have a picnic somewhere other than you usually eat, like a different room. They can help pack the picnic basket.

I had on cupboard in the kitchen full of older mixing bowls, wooden spoons, etc, they 'helped' me cook dinner every night.

Played a LOT of I Spy, or I See Something That Doesn't Belong.

Rotate books and toys. Everything old will be new again!

:)

-Magnets on a cookie sheet (makes them portable)-my two year old loves this!
-Aquadoodle
-stringing pasta
-PVC pipe and hot wheels - makes a cool ramp, keeps my 5yo busy for hours!
-Boxes - they build all kinds of stuff but it almost always ends with them turning the boxes into slides
-bubbles
-water play - put a tub of water on the ground with an old rug underneath. My daughter likes to "wash" her play dishes
-coloring, painting, playdough
-Dominoes-my oldest builds up the rows while the youngest knocks them down

Great question! This is one I have wanted to ask lately. :)

How old are you kids?

My daughter is almost 2 and I struggle every day trying to find stuff for her to do. I think as the weather warms up, it will be nice to get outside (she loves it outside). But until then, what are some activities for a 2-year-old only child??

I have my kiddos help me while I'm busy. We also have a sand and water table that's fun (haven't tried that with the baby yet!) I'll give each of the kids a dog treat and have them try to get the dog to sit (our dog listens very well, but this is kind of a game to him too). We have a 'tunnel' that I'll set up and let them go nuts. We'll blast music and sing in silly voices/dance like goofballs while I'm cooking. The older kids read to each other or read animal books to the baby. They LOVE ispy. I'll have the older kids make cards for out of state relatives. Or sometimes, when all else fails, I literally lock them outside (our yard is fenced in, no escape, and no one's coming in) and throw a box of sidewalk chalk and tell them to had at it!!

You don't say how old your kids are, judging by the activities you list, I guess toddler to pre-school age?

We had one of those play kitchens and my kids would cook along with me, me at my stove and they at theirs. As they got a little bit older, they could help me with some tasks, stirring was always a big hit, helping set the table, help me taste the food (my son was really good at that, and it gets them invested at eating it at the table, too ;-))

have the older one "read" to the younger one(s) - they usually have their favorite books memorized

playing with their train tracks

Playing with wooden blocks

pushing cars around the floor, with obstacle courses around table and chair legs (can you tell I have boys? LOL)

play them a story CD or tape, so they can sit and listen (instead of watching moving pictures they get to make them in their own head; and no commercials) - I love the story tapes recorded by Jim Weiss and so did my boys

crayons and blank paper (not a coloring book)

construction paper and kid-safe blunt scissors and crayons

sing the clean-up song with them and have them pick up the toys they played with earlier, in preparation for dinner and the evening (my kids did that really well when it was also timed, they were competitive and tried to beat their own time)

empty the dryer and have them sort socks; they can also start to fold laundry, at least socks and underwear...

when they were younger:
have them "sort" tupperware container lids

build towers with or stack old yogurt containers and similar

play drums with a pot and wooden spoon

sing songs together

recite nursery rhymes while they do the movements that go with them

make pictures with our special refrigerator magnets (they were different shapes and colors, people, cars, sun, houses, dogs, etc, so you could make real pictures and tell a story to go along with it, or rather they would tell me the story to go with it)

We used to play grocery store with the real cans of food, boxes of cereal. fresh fruit, cat food .. Our daughter would line them up. We would "go shopping" and she was the cashier and then she would bag up the groceries.. Sometimes we would "trade places". and she would shop.

We also played restaurant. She would "write up a menu" and be the waitress. She would "write down our order" and then serve the food.. Then we would trade places. She loved making up silly foods, thinking of a name for the restaurant.. She liked when I would "leave her a tip.".

She would set the table.. sometimes with silly things instead of dishes. I would pretend her stuffed animals were my friends and they would join me at the table.

I let them help me cook and clean!!

I like to let the kids help me when cooking. I don't work from home :( so I don't know there. When I am wanting to get house work done I usually send them to play in their room or outside with the neighbors if it is warm enough. All my kids like to help with chores around the house since they get paid for the help.